Voldemort's Last Gift: Where's the magic?
by sonea91
Summary: Brief Summary: 2 years have passed since the Battle of Hogwarts. And suddenly, all magic somehow disappears. How will the wizarding world learn to deal with this predicament? probably canon pairings
1. Prologue

**So I'm faced with one big dilemma right now. I sort of want Fred alive in this story, but I'm just not sure whether I should. What do you think? Should I just ignore the fact that he supposedly died in the battle?**

**Oh, and yes, the story will centre on Harry, Hermione, Ron, etc. No worries!**

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He could hear their chatter inside. He had been waiting for this moment, had been waiting for it for so long. "Patience" he murmured to himself. He would not let himself ruin this moment. After all, he had not waited for so long for nothing!

Yet another car was parked in the road, and a small family (the parents and two little girls) got out of the car, laughing. They quickly made their way over to the house, knocking, and joining the party inside. They did not notice the tall, lean man, hiding behind an oak tree in the garden.

He knew that he didn't have to wait much longer. Patience, patience. He had planned this out perfectly, everything would work out just the way he wanted it too. He clutched his wand and smiled grimly. Then he suddenly pressed his wand against the bark and burnt something into the wood: "Mary, I hate you!"

_Mary was inside, watching the crowd. She looked at her husband, Michael and smiled. It was their 10__th__ anniversary! They were a happy couple, they had gone to primary school together and already been friends there. Then their ways had separated, he had gone on to the local high school whilst she had received a certain letter and had found herself at platform 9 ¾ soon afterwards. They had met again, just after they had both finished school, in a pub in London. First it had been only old friends chatting, but they had soon agreed to meet again, and friendship had turned into love not long afterwards. She had told him that she was a witch, frightened at first of what his reactions might be, but he had taken it considerably well. After all, she had given up living in the wizarding society for him, but she hadn't really minded. She was not the most gifted of witches anyway and she still had kept some of her friends from Hogwarts. She could clearly remember the day when he had proposed to her, it had been one of the happiest days of her life._

Now. Everyone should be at the party by now, well, and if someone wasn't, they would just be unlucky and miss the show. A pity, really. He chuckled. Then he left his hiding place.

_Mary listened carefully as their son, Paul, was reciting a poem for their anniversary, which Aunt Anne (Michael's sister) had probably taught him. Her eyes were glittering with tears and as soon as he was finished she walked over to him, wrapping her arms around her: "I'm so proud of you" she whispered into his ears. Paul beamed: "Can I have a piece of cake now?" he exclaimed loudly. Mary just laughed and dropped her arms. "Of course you can, mate" Michael said, picking him up and twirling him through the air. Paul cheered delightedly. "See, Mum, I can fly" Mary was about to reply when she saw something in the window and quickly turned around, but there was nothing there. She must have erred, probably it had just been a reflection in the window._

How much he hated her. She had destroyed him, not even acknowledging the fact that she had. He remembered when he had first seen her, she had been standing there, her long, blond hear falling down her back, framing her beautiful face. It had been the first day at Hogwarts for both of them. He had first got a look at her when they had been waiting to be divided up by the Sorting Hat. He had been one of the first ones to put it on, and he had been chosen for the House of Ravenclaw. How much he had wished her to become a Ravenclaw as well, but she hadn't, instead she had become a Hufflepuff.

He had tried to talk to her a few days after, but she had all but ignored him. He had given up soon afterwards, after all he had only been 11 then. He hadn't really wasted much time thinking about her 'til sixth year. By then, he'd been well known as a womanizer and one rainy day he had bet with his friends that there was not one girl that could resist him, they had chosen Mary as the one to try it on. He had tried everything to get her attention, but she never really seemed to notice him, never thanked him for opening doors for her, for picking up things she had dropped. Normally, he would have been sensible enough to give up after a while, but he just couldn't give up on her. He kept on trying to charm her and found himself falling in love with her. His friend had teased him at first, then told him to just forget about her, that she hadn't been worth it. They had told him that he was getting obsessed, but he hadn't cared, hadn't even noticed that the boy who used to be one of the most popular ones of his year had started to lose more and more of his friends, becoming a loner.

Then, when he had finally told her what he had felt for her, she had just laughed at him and not taken him serious at all. Instead she had chosen that stupid muggle, had given up her whole life as a witch for him. How could she? How could she knowing that he would have always been there for her? Knowing that he loved her, that he would have done anything to make her happy?

Well, more than 10 years had passed. The obsession hadn't passed, but love had turned into self-pity, rage and thoughts of revenge. Today was his day. How much she would regret having refused him after all. He slammed the front door open.

_Mary looked up, wondering who the hell was making so much noise. Then she saw someone standing there, pointing a wand at them. Suddenly it dawned on her and she gasped: "Peter, what are you doing here?"_

He noticed how she just stared at him blankly, not recognizing him. Ha, she would soon enough. And she did. He cleared his throat. It was time to make his speech, the last thing she would ever hear.

_She stared at him, shocked. In school, she had always made fun of him. Sure he had been very popular, but he'd just been such a jackass, totally cocky and big-headed. When he had told her that he loved her, at the end of 7__th__ year she had just laughed at him and guessed that it was the outcome of some stupid bet. She had never thought that he could have been serious, it was only afterwards that friends told her that they thought he actual had feelings for her. By then, it was too late, she was a bit sorry that she might have hurt his feeling, but to be honest, she had never really thought about it for too long._

He saw how Michael was stepping to her side. The bloody muggle. Probably he should kill him first. After all, he had been the one for whom she'd given up her life as a witch, and he was probably the one who meant most to her. He wanted to hurt her so badly, wanted her to feel how he had, wanted her to know how much she had hurt him.

_She panicked. Nobody in here knew about her being a witch, nobody even knew that such things as wizards existed. Nobody that is except Michael. He looked concerned, she had told him enough for him to know that they were in deadly danger. She felt how he wrapped his arm protectively around her and at once she felt somewhat safer. If only this could somehow end well…_

He could hear some laughter around him which made him even more furious. Oh, they didn't know what danger they were in, but they would soon enough find out. Who did they think he was? He wanted to demonstrate his power by destroying something around him, and decided to take the clock hanging on the wall opposite. Yes, that was perfect, something to get himself into the mood. He lifted his wand, when suddenly someone dragged his arm.

_She hadn't noticed that Paul had darted towards Peter, oblivious to the danger he was in. She wanted to scream out loud, but was petrified and tongue-tied of fear._

He looked down and saw a little boy of three to four years dragging his arm. "Are you a magician?" the little boy asked him. "No, I mean, yes, I mean, I'm a wizard, yes" he stuttered, totally perplexed. The boys eyes glittered with delight. "Show me something," he said. "For example, could you turn Daddy into a dog?" People started laughing, they thought this was some kind of joke.

Peter took in Mary's frightened look and realized that this was her son in front of her, and the bloody muggle was his father. "Time for a change of plan" he thought. "I wonder how she'll react if I kill her little boy in front of her!"

_Mary was paralyzed. She wanted to get her little boy away from him, wanted to protect him, but she was too shocked to move. Oh god, why had she never taken him serious?_

He smiled grimly and asked the boy: "So, kiddo, what's your name?" – "Paul," the boy provided. Peter pointed his wand at him. "Mind if I try something out on you?"- "Oh, yes, do, do!" Paul shouted excitedly, his eyes glittering with excitement. His blue, very deep eyes, the same eyes as his mother's. The eyes he had fallen in love with.

"Get over there" he suddenly shouted at Paul, pushing him towards his mother. He just knew one thing; he did not have it in him to hurt these innocent looking eyes.

He started pointing his wand at different people in the crowd, until it finally pointed towards Mary, Michael and Paul. He had heard that this was good for dramatic effects. "You know why I am here, don't you?" he asked Mary. She didn't answer. "You bloody well know, you stupid witch!" he shouted.

Paul was suddenly frightened, now clinging to his mother's legs. "You are not going to hurt them, are you?" he asked him. Some people still giggled, but most of them looked rather bemused.

He knew none of them would believe him until they had proof. So he better got started. He pointed his wand at Michael, but looked at Mary: "You know, you deserve this. You destroyed my life, now I'm going to destroy yours by killing the people dearest to you!"

Some of the people around looked frightened now, but most still just looked disbelieving. Oh, they would learn to fear him soon enough! "Avada Kedavra" he said, putting all his anger and hatred into it.

"_No," she was screaming inside. "No! This just can't be happening!" She turned around to look at her husband._

He was about to snort deridingly when he realized that something was wrong. Why was Michael still standing? Why wasn't he lying at the ground, dead, but instead was unaffected? The spell hadn't worked. Now it was his turn to look disbelieving, to look at the man facing him, who was supposed to be dead. He just stared at them, dropping his hand, now being the one paralyzed.

Suddenly someone knocked him over and twisted his hand so that he dropped his wand. He was still too shocked to react in any way. "Call the police, now" he heard someone shouting.

* * *

_She closed the door, wrecked. She hadn't had any time yet to think about what had happened today. The police had arrived, not long after and they had taken Peter to a mental institution. They'd asked her whether she wanted to press charges against him but had advised her not to, 'after all, he only pointed at you with some toy thingy'. _

_She'd explained to her friends that he was a guy whom she had rejected in high school, which basically was the truth. But no, she hadn't realized back then that he was 'mentally diseased', a bit weird, yes, that's why she never got involved with him in anything. _

_She picked up the wand he had dropped; nobody had bothered to pick it up. She should better hide it somewhere safe. But what the hell had happened tonight? _

_Michael was walking into the room, he had just brought Paul to bed. He looked at her, concerned. She sighed, she knew that he had questions and she also knew that she would have to answer them. He deserved to know, well, to know as much as she could tell him. What had really happened tonight? Why hadn't the spell worked? Michael walked over to her, putting his arms around her tightly. She nestled up against him, enjoying the warmth of his embrace. After all, he should have been dead now. She shuddered._

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**So, that was the epilogue. And no, the story is not going to focus on Mary and the whole lot of them, but Harry, Hermione, etc. But it still carries some significance, you'll see=)**

**Please don't forget to review (reviews just make my day! and I'm not looking for praise her, I also love constructive criticism) and tell me: Fred or no Fred, that is the question;)**


	2. A like Australia

**So I just decided to leave Fred alive**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything but the plot;)**

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Harry woke up and looked at the beautiful woman lying at his side. He loved to watch her sleep, she looked so peaceful then. Looking at the clock he realized though that he'd have to wake her, they had slept in, it was already ten and Ron was supposed to be at their house at twelve for lunch. Reluctantly he shook her lightly and whispered in her ear: "Wake up, sleepy head!"

Ginny opened her eyes slowly, blinking and yawning while stretching her arms: "Is it already time to get up?" she asked him.

He didn't even get to answer, as she'd already taken a glance at the clock behind him and immediately jumped out of bed, shocked.

"Harry, it's already ten! I still have to take a shower and to make lunch and I wanted to do the laundry and I still have to clean our living room and all before 12!"

"Relax, love" Harry said, taking her arm and trying to pull her back onto bed. "After all, it's just Ron, your brother, my best friend. He won't mind if everything isn't a hundred percent perfect, you know?"

"I know he won't, but he'll probably tell Fred & George and they'll tell Mum, you know how the whole thing works in the Weasley family."

"Sure, we'll be fine. You know I can clean the living room and do the laundry if you want me to."

"Thanks" Ginny replied, leaning down to give him a peck on the lips. "You're the best. So you'll clean the living room, but I won't let you anywhere near our laundry, I've had enough of pink laundry."

Harry chuckled. One day he'd tried to surprise Ginny by doing the laundry, but it had all turned into a complete disaster. He'd mixed white laundry in with red one and Ginny's favourite white pair of trousers had turned pink. She had been mad at him first, shouting at him furiously (something she had definitely inherited from her mother), but she hadn't stayed mad for long, she never did. That was one of the many things he loved so much about her.

He once more stretched on the bed, not ready to get up yet. He loved the way things were now, after all everything had turned out to be fine. He had moved into this little house with Ginny, his wife and they had decided to move into some muggle town, as they both had been looking forward to the anonymity only a muggle town could offer them. That also meant that they lived in a muggle house, without the usual wizard luxuries, but they both enjoyed it that way. Ginny had grown quite fond of muggle cooking, even though she did use some spells to help her a little.

Ron and Hermione were both living in their own apartments, they were engaged but yet to be married. However, the four friends met up regularly, seeing one another at least a few times a week.

After the War the whole wizarding world had been in a turmoil. There had been many celebrations, but sadly even more funerals. The War had taken its toll and there was not one wizard family that had not lost at least one of its members during the War. Slowly but surely the Wizarding World had started to rebuild itself, but there had still been many former Deatheaters on the run and people had had to come to terms with what had happened. Things had improved slowly and it had only been recently that the situation seemed to have finally settled with most of the former Deatheaters finally behind bars, though the ministry had decided not to trust the dementors and had destroyed nearly all of them. Akzaban had been torn down and a new prison had been build which resembled the muggle prisons a lot. All of the dementors had been killed, if that was what you could call it, not without causing the wizards a lot of trouble before by attacking a lot of muggles.

Since the situation seemed to be stable enough now, Hermione had finally decided to go to Australia to look for her parents. She had left the day before, and Harry, knowing that his friend would at least be depressed about that to some extent had suggested that they could invite him for lunch to their house. Ginny had quickly agreed and Ron had been more than happy to accept the invitation.

About two hours later, there was a sharp knock on the door and before Harry could even reach it, it swung open and a joyful Ron walked in.

"Hello" he greeted.

"Ron, you know the whole sense of knocking is to wait for people to open up" Ginny shouted from the kitchen.

"Well hello little sister" Ron yelled back. "How would you know that Harry wasn't the one opening the door?"

Ginny snorted and though they couldn't see her, both of the men could just picture her rolling her eyes at the statement.

"Don't ask!" Harry told his friend "She just has this way to know that kind of things, I still haven't figured out how she does it."

"You know I can still hear you perfectly!" Ginny interrupted once again, as they started walking towards the kitchen.

"You're too much like mum" Ron complained.

"See, not my fault, it's all about the genes" Ginny replied just as they entered the kitchen.

"That smells lovely" Harry said, smelling the lasagna in the oven.

"It does", Ron agreed, his stomach grumbling.

"Don't worry, the lasagna should be done in five minutes" Ginny said, ushering over to the table and making them sit down.

"So, any word from Hermione yet?" Harry asked.

"No", Ron answered "but she said it'd be a while 'til she'd be able to contact me. But knowing her, she'll find her parents and be back in no time anyway."

"You're probably right" Harry said, just as some tune was interrupting him. Everyone looked up confused, not being able to tell there it came from. It sounded familiar to Harry, but it could it be…

"Ron, you don't happen to have a mobile on you, do you?" Harry asked his friend.

"Oh yes, Hermione gave one of those to me, she said it'd be the easiest way to keep in contact. But why are you asking?"

"Maybe because it's ringing?!"

"Oh, is it?" Ron asked surprised, fumbling a mobile out of his pocket. "How do I answer this damn thing?" he mumbled more to himself than anyone else. "'Press the green button' she said" he said, pressing it and then putting the mobile to his ear.

"'Mione" he yelled at it. "Are you there?"

"Ron" she shouted back, loud enough for even Harry and Ginny to hear her. "Of course I am, and I'm not deaf! I can hear you perfectly without you shouting at me."

"Oh" Ron murmured, rather dumbfounded. "So can you still hear me if I talk this lowly?"

"Perfectly fine" Hermione assured him.

"So, how are you?" Ron asked her, walking out of the kitchen to have some privacy with his fiancée.

"Ah, I'm alright" she replied," just a wee bit tired from the jetlag."

"So have you started to look for your parents yet?" Ron inquired.

"Not really, no, I haven't had enough time yet. But I suppose I'll start this afternoon and you know, I might be very busy for the next few days, so don't worry if I won't call too often, right?!"

"Right. But I'll still miss you."

"I miss you too. But I need to find my parents, I still feel bad for 'abandoning' them."

"Hey, you did not 'abandon' them. You did that so that they were protected and they'll understand that."

"I know, but I still feel bad about it. But anyways, what are you doing?"

"Argh, I'm just at Harry and Ginny's. They invited me over for dinner." At that his stomach started to grumble again.

Hermione laughed at the other end of the line. "Sound s like someone is hungry there. Well, I won't keep you any longer then. Say hey to Harry and Ginny from me, would you?"

"I will. Love you."

"Love you, too!" she replied before she hung up.

Ron sighed heavily, he was already missing her, before he walked back into the kitchen.

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**So what do you think? Maybe ****feel like leaving a review?!**


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